* In an article purporting to be a review of _Whistlecraft's poem_, (now entitled _The Monks and Giants_,) and _The Court and Parliament of Beasts_.
After speaking of the mode in which he arranged his work, it is a natural transition to the substance with which Boiardo built. This shews strong internal evidence* of having been taken, in the main, from the old French romances of Charlemagne, or rather from Italian works, raised upon their foundation. Hoole mentions one of these, called _Aspramonte_, &c., of uncertain date, and we have the titles of two others, which were anterior to the _Innamorato_, one called _Li fatti di Carlo Magno e dei Paladini di Francia_, printed in 1481; the other printed in 1491, and entitled _La Historia real di Francia, che tratta dei fatti dei Paladini e di Carlo Magno in set libri_. Some indeed would seem to deny that Boiardo had dug in these mines, and would wish us to believe, that he not only compounded but manufactured the materials with which he wrought. Such at least would appear to have been the drift of one, who observes that Agramant, Sacripant and Gradassso were names of certain of the vassals of Scandiano. But if he means to insinuate by this, that Boiardo was not also indebted to the other source for his fictions and characters, as well might a critic of to-day, contend that the author of the _Monks and Giants_, who writes under the name of _Whistlecraft_, had not borrowed the idea of their cause of quarrel from Pulci, because he has given ridiculous modern names to some of his giants; or that he had not taken the leaders amongst his _dramatis personæ_ from the romances of the _Round Table_, because he has conferred "two leopards' faces," that is, his own arms, on the single knight, who perishes in Sir Tristram's successful expedition.
* A single circumstance, which I cite, because it can be appreciated by every body, would convince me that such stories as are to be found in the _Innamorato_, were not the growth of Boiardo's century. No author of that age could have imagined the friendly ties of alliance and consanguinity between Christians and paynims, though such fictions are justified by facts: thus we learn from Gibbon that like relations existed between Greeks and Turks, and (as we are informed by Mr. Lockhart, in the preface to his _Spanish Ballads_, a work which presents a striking pictures of manners as of passion) between Spaniards and Moors. Nor need such things surprise us, though the barriers which now separate Christian and Mahomedan, render them impossible. Nations are like individuals, and when they are brought into close and constant intercourse, of whatever kind, their passions, good or bad, must be kindled by the contact.